Custom «Online Friends» Essay Paper Sample

Online friends refer to friends individuals interact with via social networks such as facebook and twitter. These friends play vital roles in the social development of adolescents.

This paper explicates online friends and their roles in the social development of adolescents.

They help in answering vital questions asked by adolescents. Online friends are vital in providing solutions to the commonly asked questions. Adolescents pose questions in an open manner as fear in eliminated (Alemán and Wartman, P 110). They could ask questions relating to the rapid changes in their behavior and physical appearance. Thus, online friends would help in their social developments by helping them understand themselves better. Through this, they are able to appreciate the stage in their lives.

Conventional and online friendships are similar in the manner that they both help adolescents develop an identity. The adolescent gains from both friendships and is able to recognize that every other person undergoes changes at some point of his life. This is achieved through shared experiences. On the other hand, conventional friendships are restrictive in nature while online friendships are open in terms of the questions asked. One could fear to ask some questions to conventional friends because of the fear of being intimidated (Subrahmanyam and Šmahel, P 120). Adolescents feel more comfortable to pose questions to online friends whom they have never met physically.

A cyber environment provides adolescents with a superb learning opportunity. They are able to share experiences and learn from others. This would provide them with an opportunity to learn wider aspects relating to negotiation skills, acceptance of others’ viewpoints, and genuine identification. The diverse backgrounds and similar problems they face in their lives would boost this (Alemán and Wartman, P 117). They would identify themselves properly because of the feeling that they need to be appreciated the way they are.

In conclusion, online friends are vital in the social development of adolescents because they provide a means to free interactions. Adolescents are also able to learn significantly from online friendships.